Concept Development

PROJECT BRIEF: Space and Environment

MOTIVE:

Space and environment are some of the defining elements of digital and interactive media. Spatiality is a particularly significant issue in the 3D worlds of contemporary computer games and multi-user platforms, however it also plays an important role in the design of 2D animation and interactive systems. Space can be used to indicate changes in mood, time, and setting, and be an important narrative element in its own right. Film has always exploited the potential of space to tell stories, establish context, and add depth and meaning to the narratives that take place within it. The advent of new interactive technologies, however, has opened up our understanding of on-screen space; we are no longer limited to what we see on the screen but are able to move freely into different spaces, choose different paths, and explore screen worlds from all sorts of different angles at our leisure. This new type of space has implications for how we understand narrative on screen; single linear narratives have given way to divergent spaces, in which users generate their own experience by moving through virtual space. These spaces may be evocative, they may explicitly tell a story or establish an open ended situation, they may be contested spaces or spaces for exploration, battle, socializing, creativity or game play. An understanding of the potential of space and environment is essential to our ability, as animators and game designers, to create worlds, communities, and ideas outside of our own.

MEANS:

You are to create an environment which may be navigated by a single user, either in a 3D game engine or as a 2D image which can be navigated through devices such as scrolling and zooming. The world you create should contain at least TWO distinct environments. Consider how the space you create may function to suggest narrative, obscure or reveal information, convey thematic or emotional content, or suggest changes in time and place. The environment you create can be as abstract or as concrete as you desire; it may be logical and realistic, or it may be surreal, bizarre and imaginary. Consider how factors such as lighting, composition, colour, scale, texture and motion can be used to convey meaning within this space. You might choose to use the screen as a type of window into a virtual world, or as an entry point to an ‘infinite canvas’. Consider in particular how your choice of layout, sequence, and composition, can strengthen the communication of your ideas. You should also give some thought to how the user should interact with the space you have created. Is it a narrative space? A space for exploration or puzzle-solving? A space for relaxation or a space for challenges or battles? The type of interaction you wish to provoke in the user should be reflected in your design.

MEDIA:

The chosen media is up to you.

Linear submissions need to be quicktime movies at 25 fps, 1280x720, audio at 44.100 kHz.

Interactive submissions will have varying formats/technologies, but if possible use 1280x720.

Submissions need to be submitted to the AIM server, clearly named and titled. Each project submission requires a completed RMIT submission form.

Submission Date: April 27^th 2011